Review: Paper or Plastic by Vivi Barnes

Paper or Plastic
Author: Vivi Barnes
Release Date: February 3, 2015
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Source: Entangled Publishing
Review by: Nahomi

Welcome to SmartMart, where crime pays minimum wage...

Busted. Alexis Dubois just got caught shoplifting a cheap tube of lipstick at the local SmartMart. She doesn’t know what’s worse—disappointing her overbearing beauty-pageant-obsessed mother for the zillionth time…or her punishment. Because Lex is forced to spend her summer working at the store, where the only things stranger than the staff are the customers.

Now Lex is stuck in the bizarro world of big-box retail. Coupon cutters, jerk customers, and learning exactly what a “Code B” really is (ew). And for added awkwardness, her new supervisor is the totally cute—and adorably geeky—Noah Grayson. Trying to balance her out-of-control mother, her pitching position on the softball team, and her secret crush on the school geek makes for one crazy summer. But ultimately, could the worst job in the world be the best thing that ever happened to her?

3 stars out of 5 stars

*I received an early copy of this title from the publisher but it did not influence this review in any way.*

Paper or Plastic is a cute story, that has a lot of good themes. It took me about 75 pages to be able to get into the story because Alexis's internal monologue was annoying, especially in the beginning. After I got over my initial annoyance with Alexis I was actually able to get into the story and finished it fairly quickly.

The plot and the pacing of the story are good, although the plot is a little predictable. I love how the story transitions from one section to the next seamlessly. Alexis shows a lot of character growth by the end of the story and I think that is one of the main reasons I liked it better towards the end. I really liked the relationships she formed with her co-workers at the supermarket.

I enjoyed how the relationship between Alexis and Noah evolved. It took them some time to get to know each other and get over their initial misconceptions of each other. Noah is such a sweet guy. He is always looking out and trying to protect others. Noah and Alexis compliment each other very well.

Paper or Plastic is a good story overall. The ending left me high and dry so to speak it felt kind of abrupt, although all of the major conflicts were resolved. Other than my initial qualms with Alexis I enjoyed reading Paper or Plastic.